Lit Hub Daily: October 12, 2022

• Antony Beevor on the Red Army’s campaign of terror, the most “conspicuous cruelty” Europe had seen since the wars of religion. | Lit Hub History

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• “I knew I didn’t know what I was doing, the monks knew I didn’t know what I was doing, and so, who was this performance for?” E.M. Tran on culture and ritual at her father’s funeral. | Lit Hub Memoir

• Patriarchy and possession: Are the mother and daughter of The Exorcist being punished because they don’t “need or want a daddy”? | Lit Hub Film & TV

• Meet Mary Vaux Walcott, the trailblazing illustrator and mountaineer who captured North America’s wildflowers. | Lit Hub Nature

• Nora McInerny reflects on the hijacking nature of anxiety. | Lit Hub Memoir

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• Vanessa A. Bee in praise of spite writing—or, carrying around your rejections in a figurative fanny pack. | Lit Hub Craft & Advice

• Molly Odintz recommends 18 novels that prove we’re living in a golden age of horror. | CrimeReads

• Jordan Pruett asks: What counts as a bestseller? | Public Books

• Claire Savage looks at the growing demand for children’s books “that address traumatic events,” which educators say are helpful to their students. | AP

• Memoirist Leonard Kriegel, best known for his writing about his disability, has died at 89. | The New York Times

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• Read a new poem by Raven Leilani. | Astra Magazine

• Lavinia Greenlaw and Emily Ogden discuss their recent books, which delve into the existential questions of everyday life. | The Royal Society of Literature

• Dan Kois explores the legacy of Rod McKuen, “the most popular poet in American publishing history”—now all but forgotten. | Slate

• Behind the scenes of the long-running podcast All About Agatha, whose hosts set out to read and rank every Agatha Christie novel. | Los Angeles Times

Also on Lit Hub: Arwen Donahue on the doubts left behind by sudden death • A Conversation with poet Kathleen Rooney • Read a story from Giada Scodellaro’s debut collection, Some of Them Will Carry Me